Amber Waves and Rolling Clouds
by wildblues
Summary: [CORNER GAS] She brushed away various items – one of his Hardy Boys books, a magazine, the forgotten stun gun [he hadn’t once taken it out of the drawer since his incident with it at Corner Gas], before she came across something peculiar. [DavisxKaren]


* * *

The breeze whipped in through the opened office window, causing papers to scuttle across the surface of the desk and onto the floor in one graceful swoop. The long grasses outside rustled pleasantly, a soothing sound familiar to the residents of Dog River. A sound that meant peace and tranquility, not something the town was known for, but relaxing nonetheless. It was because of such a sound that Officer Karen Pelly felt barely a twinge of annoyance when she bent to pick up the papers that were so violently shaken from their resting place. 

She carefully replaced them upon her desk, turning to close the window halfway, still wanting to enjoy the cool breeze that had floated in so suddenly. She sat at her desk again, tapping her pen against the hardwood finish. The paperwork sat untouched, sprawled out over the surface of the desk in front of her, her mind wandering. The day had been uneventful, even for Dog River, and Davis had left to patrol hours before without her, as she claimed to have a lot of paperwork to get done. The phone hadn't rung once since his departure, silence hung heavily in the air of their small office, save for the subtle rustle of the dry, tall grass.

Karen snapped suddenly from her reverie, looking back down to focus on the form she had been trying to complete for the past twenty minutes. It was then, she noticed, that she had written the word 'infraction' twice in a row on the page because of her wandering thoughts. She sighed. A shake of her bottle of correction fluid revealed that it was empty, and she had no more stashed in her desk drawer. The only option, she decided, was to get one from Davis' supply. He rummaged through her desk on a daily basis, she had long ago discovered, it wouldn't hurt him if he were missing one small bottle of correction fluid. She rose from her seat, crossing the cluttered room to Davis' desk, being careful not to knock over any of his things on its surface. He was weird about that. He had given her a long lecture about his value of privacy once, and she had tuned him out a few minutes in.

He'd probably never even know about the correction fluid. It's not like he often did the paperwork, anyway. In addition, she'd replace it later.

Karen reached to open the top drawer of Davis' desk, pulling it forward with a metallic creak that made her twitch. She had told him to oil it last week. She cringed every time he pulled the drawer open, Davis half-heartedly apologizing to her as she squirmed in her chair and made mildly agonized noises. She thought maybe he did it just to see her squirm like that, just to annoy her.

She brushed away various items – one of his Hardy Boys books, a magazine, the forgotten stun gun (he hadn't once taken it out of the drawer since his incident with it at Corner Gas), before she came across something peculiar; an item that seemed foreign and out of place amongst the clutter of her partner's desk. She raised an eyebrow, pulling the alien object from the chaos of the drawer.

It was a long, narrow silver box, held closed by a white ribbon that was tied in a hasty, awkward-looking knot. Karen stared at it with a sense of curiosity, turning the box over in her hands. She had seen it before, at Christmas of the previous year, tossed amongst the donations for a failed charity event on their part. But why had Davis kept this?

She glanced outside briefly; making sure their patrol car was nowhere to be seen. The last thing she needed on such a relaxing day was a lecture about staying out of her partner's desk. Curiosity peaked again as she glanced at the box, resting innocently in the palm of her hand. She bit her lip. Surely, a peek couldn't hurt anyone.

'_Partners don't keep secrets from each other'_ he had once said to her. She had told him some of her more embarrassing secrets; it wouldn't be right for him to keep anything from her as well, the hypocrite. She pulled gently at the ribbon-knot, working it carefully loose and tossing it onto Davis' desk carelessly. She opened the silver lid, placing it next to the ribbon.

The box contained a watch. She remembered seeing such a watch, again at Christmas. This, she realized, was the very same watch Davis had been waving around all week back then. It shimmered brilliantly in the fading daylight, white gold with intricate designs carved across the face and clasp. She turned it over in her palm so that the back of the watch was facing up. Her breath caught in her throat when she examined the opposite side of the watch face. Engraved in the rich metal was a short message:

_Merry Christmas, Karen._

_Love, Davis._

This watch was hers. Or rather, it was _meant_ to be hers, Davis had bought her a gift after all. A beautiful gift. She felt the guilt burn white hot in her heart as her eyes flicked over the engraving again. How could she have been so stupid, she mentally scolded.

_Love_, Davis. Her gaze remained fixated upon the word for a moment too long, as she felt a sudden pang in her chest. She shrugged it off, dismissing it as a disagreement between her stomach and Lacey's fries she had eaten that afternoon.

She nearly threw the box upon the floor when she heard the sound of tires on gravel outside the half-opened window. Hurriedly, she placed the watch back in the box and closed its lid, tossing it into the drawer and shutting it slowly so that it wouldn't creak loudly. The white ribbon remained on her partner's desk, forgotten.

Rushing to her desk, she heard the car door slam shut, and the sound of footsteps overlapped that of the rustling grasses. She pulled out a book, hands shaking for a reason she couldn't really place, and opened it to a random page, her eyes flicking across the page quickly. She didn't look up when she heard the office door open.

"Turned out Oscar had a cat up his tree _again_. This time, I had _him_ climb the ladder," Davis said, shutting the door and removing his hat, "It didn't really end well. We're gonna need more forms."

When he received no response, he stopped in mid-removal of his jacket, "Karen?"

Her gaze snapped upward, away from the book she hadn't really been reading, "Yeah?" she screwed up her face in annoyance when she realized her voice was shaking.

"…You alright?" he gave her a wary glance as he placed his hat on the rack. Karen acting strangely ended in one of two things: hostility, or… well, he hadn't figured out what the second outcome was.

"What? Oh. Oh, _yeah_, just fine," she said, waving the hand that held her book in a dismissive gesture.

"Oh, okay," Davis nodded, resuming the removal of his jacket once more.

"Hey! Wait! Don't take your jacket off just yet," Karen said, holding up a hand to stop him and rising from her chair. She was met with the confused expression on her partner's face.

"... Why?"

"It's quitting time, right?"

"Um," he glanced at the wall clock, "Just about. We've got a bit of time still, though."

"Forget it, let's knock off a few minutes early," Karen said cheerily, crossing the room to where he stood near the coat rack, snatching her own jacket from one of its hooks.

"Why? Don't you have all that paperwork you wanted to do?"

"Eh, it can wait," she said, pulling the oversized jacket across her shoulders, "Come on, right now I'm gonna buy you a drink."

"Al_right!_" he smiled.

As she pulled on her jacket, Karen glanced at him momentarily. She noticed, with a small amount of alarm, that he was looking at the surface of his desk, where a white ribbon had carelessly been thrown, eyebrow raised. He looked as if he was about to say something. In an attempt to distract him, she touched his arm, snapping his attention back to her instantly.

"Come on, let's go," she said as good-naturedly as she could. She walked through the door, turning off the light switch on her way out. Davis followed, his hand resting at her back as he often did, but for the first time, Karen shivered at his touch. She didn't worry; she knew he wouldn't notice.

They walked out into the crisp evening air, the same cool breeze whipping through the long grass. Neither said anything, though they both knew what they wanted to talk about.

They settled on a discussion about Batman and Robin as they walked down the street in the direction of the Dog River Hotel.

They would talk about it later.

* * *

I don't know what really happened to that watch, but I though this'd be sweet. For the purpose of this drabble, I guess Davis took it back to give to her the next year if she got him something. Maybe something like an emergency gift, haha! 

There's not much Corner Gas love out there in fanfiction world, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to add something to the mix. Davis and Karen are so sweet, I think :) It'd be nice if you didn't flame me and stuff, but if you must; you know what to do. I'm not expecting much feedback anyway. Thanks for reading, at least!


End file.
